Not Much of a Blast
Nelson (Frankie Muniz - Stay Alive) and the guys from his frat house have pitched up in Las Vegas for spring break, not that Nelson is as idiotic as the others in his group and instead finds himself befriending Olive (Maggie Castle) who is there with her party loving friends only because her cousin was forced to take her. But when one of the guys fools around with the ancient sword of Thutmose III, which is on display in the hotel, they end up unleashing an ancient curse as a sand storm batters the famous strip. Now with the aid of old club singer Sal (Barry Bostwick - Moby Dick), who knows the tunnels under Vegas, Nelson and Olive must find three artefacts to try and bring an end to the destruction or else no one will be leaving Las Vegas.
Unlike many I tend to enjoy these made for TV disaster movies, enjoying them not for being good, get serious, but for more often than not for being bad and ridiculous. Sadly "Destruction: Las Vegas", which is also known as "Blast Vegas", just didn't do it for me despite featuring the familiar faces of Frankie Muniz and Barry Bostwick. And I suppose the simple reason is that it feels like someone let go of their imagination and delivered the sort of wild adventure that they might have imagined as children. As such on Nelson and friend's journey through the tunnels of Vegas amongst the things they discover is a satellite having come crashing in to an auditorium. It is simply too ridiculous even by made for TV disaster movie standards.
In truth whilst "Destruction: Las Vegas" starts with a weak introduction to the characters most of the movie seems to be about the special effects and yes these are the sort of less than convincing special effects which dominate made for TV disaster movies. As such we have lots of sand storms, dust clouds when there are explosions and of course any disaster movie set in Las Vegas must feature a giant ball rolling down the strip. In truth a lot of the disaster footage is simply generic and feels like it could have been lifted out of other made for TV disaster movies.
What this all boils down to is that "Destruction: Las Vegas" whilst not unwatchable struggles to fully grab you even when you only watch these sort of disaster movies for being enjoyably bad.
